Top-seeded Minnesota and No. 4 seed Yale will do battle on Friday afternoon prior to UND’s game in the other semifinal.

The winners of the two semifinals will meet in the regional championship game on Saturday.

MEDIA COVERAGE: All UND men’s hockey games, home and away, can be heard on 96.1 FM (The Fox) and on stations across the UND Hockey Radio Network. Veteran broadcaster Tim Hennessy is in his 34th season as the voice of UND hockey.

This weekend’s games can be seen live on ESPNU, which is also available online via ESPN3.com. Joe Davis will call the action with former Michigan Wolverine forward Sean Ritchlin providing analysis.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Receive real-time updates during all UND men’s hockey games by following @UNDMHockey. Additional coverage can be found at @UNDSports and @UNDSID.

Fans can also follow the action via live chat at UNDSports.com, featuring Brad Schlossman and Tom Miller of the Grand Forks Herald, along with Matt Schill and Jayson Hajdu of UND Athletics.

TICKET INFORMATION: Tournament ticket packages are available for $65 and can be requested by emailing tickets@theralph.com. E-mail requests should have the words “regional tickets” in the subject line. Ticket packages are good for both semifinals and the championship game.

Single-game tickets must be purchased online at www.ncaa.com/frozenfour.

ABOUT THE PURPLE EAGLES: Niagara earned its fourth NCAA tournament berth in program history after going 23-9-5 and winning the Atlantic Hockey regular season championship.

Junior goalie Carsen Chubak, the AHA Player of the Year and a Hobey Baker Memorial Award Top 10 finalist, is 23-6-5 with a 1.91 goals against average and a .938 save percentage. He also leads the nation with six shutouts.

Senior forward Marc Zanette received the AHA’s top defensive forward of the year honors while ranking third on the team in scoring with 10 goals and 18 assists.

Junior forward Ryan Murphy leads the team in scoring with 36 points, two points ahead of senior forward Giancarlo Iuorio. Iuorio leads the team with 21 goals.NU COACHING STAFF: Dave Burkholder (Rochester Institute of Technology ‘83), the 2013-13 AHA Coach of the Year, is in his 12th season behind the bench of the Purple Eagles and is 214-174-50 (.546).

SERIES HISTORY: UND has won all four previous meetings with Niagara, most recently a 3-1 win on Jan. 2, 2010, at Notre Dame’s Shillelagh Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

Current seniors Carter Rowney (Sexsmith, Alberta), Corban Knight (High River, Alberta), Joe Gleason (Edina, Minn.) and Andrew MacWilliam (Calgary, Alberta) all played in that game, during which Rowney scored his first career goal.

None of UND’s three goalies has ever faced Niagara.

The only time UND and the Purple Eagles have met in the NCAA tournament was in 2000, when UND won 4-1 to earn a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four. UND went on to win its seventh national title that season.

POLL POSITION: UND is ranked No. 7 in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls released on Monday.

UND was previously ranked sixth in both polls.

LAST ACTION: UND most recently suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to Colorado College last Thursday in the WCHA Final Five quarterfinal.

The loss ended UND’s streak of three straight Broadmoor Trophies as WCHA Final Five champions. It also ended UND’s 8-game WCHA Final Five winning streak.

• North Dakota is making its 28th NCAA tournament appearance and its 11th in a row, the longest active streak in the nation.

• UND has advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four in five of Hakstol’s first eight years behind the bench and is 11-3 in NCAA regional games under Hakstol.

• Hakstol is 12-8 overall in the NCAA tournament, a win total topped only by Boston College (19) during his tenure.

• UND has gone 44-17 combined in the NCAA and WCHA playoffs under Hakstol, which is 14 more wins than the next-closest WCHA school in that time

• The only time UND has played an NCAA game in Grand Rapids was in 1996-97, when the Fighting Sioux defeated Cornell 6-2 in the national quarterfinal. The win secured a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four in Milwaukee, where UND defeated Colorado College (6-2) in the semifinal and Boston University (6-4) in the national championship.

• Senior forward Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) leads all active UND players with three goals and four assists in six career NCAA postseason games.

DYNAMIC DUO: Senior linemates Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) have racked up a combined 305 career points, making them the highest-scoring duo in the nation.

Kristo’s 160 career points lead all active NCAA Division I men’s players, while Knight’s 145 career points rank sixth:Kristo tallied his 67th career goal last Thursday in the WCHA Final Five quarterfinal against Colorado College, giving him sole possession of the active lead in that category as well (see chart at top of next page):

Kristo and Knight are also two of only eight active players in the nation with 90-plus career assists:FOUR-BODEING STAT: UND is 16-1-2 (.895) this season when scoring four or more goals, but just 5-11-5 (.357) when scoring three goals or fewer.

SENIORS STANDOUTS: Friday’s night’s game features three of the six highest-scoring senior classes in the country: UND’s senior class includes skaters Danny Kristo (25-26--51), Knight (15-33--48), Carter Rowney (10-17--27), Joe Gleason (5-13--18) and Andrew MacWilliam (1-10--11), as well as goaltender Tate Maris.

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS: UND is 15-2-4 this season when outshooting its opponents.

The second loss came last Thursday against Colorado College in the WCHA Final Five quarterfinal, when UND fell 4-3 in overtime despite a 32-23 edge in shots on goal.

Both of Caggiula’s 2-goal games this season have come against CC. He has eight goals and eight assists and is a +8 in 37 games this season.

KILL OR BE KILLED: UND has successfully killed 21 of the last 24 opponent power plays, a success rate of 87.5 percent.

Opponents have scored multiple power-play goals just once in the last 18 games, a 5-4 loss at No. 10 Denver on Feb. 22 when the Pioneers went 2-for-5 with the man advantage.

POWER OUTAGE: At the other end of the special teams spectrum, UND has struggled on the power play of late, going 2-for-22 (9.1 percent) over the last six games.

That skid includes a 0-for-11 drought over the past three games.

Prior to UND’s current six-game dry spell, the power play had converted at 29.5 percent (18-for-61) over its previous 16 games (Jan. 4 to March 2), ranking second in the nation during that stretch.

ROCCO ‘ROUND THE CLOCK: Freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi (Rossmoor, Calif.) has reached the scoresheet in 12 of his last 13 games, collecting four goals and 11 assists. He is also a +11 during that stretch.

Grimaldi leads all WCHA rookies with 35 points (13g, 22a). He ranks third in the national rookie scoring race and is tied for second in assists.

Grimaldi has collected at least one point in 26 games, more than any other freshman in the nation.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: UND’s defensemen rank among the most productive blueline units in the nation:Six UND defenseman have 10 or more points this season, more than any other team in the nation: Dillon Simpson (5-19--24), Joe Gleason (5-13--18), Derek Forbort (4-11--15), Nick Mattson (3-12--15), Jordan Schmaltz (3-9--12) and Andrew MacWilliam (1-10--11).

Simpson (24 points), Gleason (18), Forbort (15) and MacWilliam (11) have all established career highs for points.Schmaltz has 10 points and is a +10 in his last 26 games after scoring 2 points with a -3 in his first 14 games.

MacWilliam leads the team’s defensemen with a +14 rating.

WINNER’S CIRCLE: Center Corban Knight (Sr., High River, Alberta) leads the nation with 591 faceoff wins, 98 more than any other player in the nation and second-most in UND history:

ROARING TWENTIES: UND’s 5-3 win over Michigan Tech to open the WCHA playoffs on March 15 was UND’s 20th victory of the season, giving head coach Dave Hakstol 20-plus wins in each of his nine seasons behind the bench.

Only John “Gino” Gasaprini, who won 20 games for 13 straight years from 1978 to 1991, had a longer streak of 20-plus wins at UND.

With 234 career victories behind the bench, head coach Dave Hakstol is approaching his predecessor, Dean Blais, as the second-winningest coach in UND history.

Blais amassed 262 victories from 1994 to 2004, to trail only John “Gino” Gasparini’s 392 wins from 1978-94.

Hakstol played for Gasparini at UND and coached alongside Blais as an assistant coach from 2000-04.

GET CARTER: For the second year in a row, senior forward Carter Rowney (Sexsmith, Alberta) is playing his best hockey down the stretch.

Since Feb. 1, Rowney has four goals and nine assists in 14 games, an average of 0.93 points per game.

Before February, Rowney had 14 points in his first 26 games, an average of 0.54 points per game.

Last season, Rowney had 13 goals and 11 assists in his last 24 games (1.00 points per game) after scoring five goals and four assists in his first 18 games (0.50 points per game).

SECOND-HALF SUCCESS: Throughout his tenure, ninth-year head coach Dave Hakstol has frequently guided his teams to a higher winning percentage after Christmas:

This season marked just the second time in the last seven years that UND won 10 games before Christmas, and just the fourth time during Hasktol’s nine-year tenure.

UND has been particularly effective under Hakstol once the calendar flips to February: This year’s senior class has gone 44-11-4 (.780) after January during its collective four years.

This season, UND has suffered four losses since Feb. 1 (8-4-2), with all four coming by just one goal.

CAPTAIN’S LOG: With 161 career games played, senior captain Andrew MacWilliam (Calgary, Alberta) is the active leader among WCHA defensemen and ranks fifth nationally among all skaters:

MacWilliam has a career-high 11 points in 39 games this season and leads UND’s defensemen with a career-high +14 rating.

FIT TO BE TIED: UND has played 11 overtime games this season, one shy of the school-record 12 set in 2000-01.

UND is 2-2-7 in overtime this season, losing each of the last two times it has played extra time.

NODAK NATION: UND led NCAA Division I men’s hockey in home attendance this season, averaging 11,592 fans per game in the 11,634-seat Ralph Engelstad Arena, and was the only team to average more than 10,000 fans per game.

It was the first time UND has led the nation in average home attendance, ending Wisconsin’s 14-year streak as the nation’s leader.

Additionally, UND’s total home attendance of 243,426 also led the nation, the third time it has topped that category.Last season, UND led the nation in total attendance (419,981) and average attendance (9,999.5) for all games -- which includes home, away and neutral -- and also led the country in total home attendance (249,501).

VOTE FOR HOBEY: Senior center Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) was the runaway winner in Phase 1 of the Vote For Hobey process, leading all 77 candidates with 36,548 votes.

Johnny Gaudreau of Boston College finished a distance second with 16,646 votes.

As of Monday evening, Knight was leading Phase 2 of the fan voting with 3,992 votes, while temamate Danny Kristo (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) ranked fourth with 1,398.

Phase 2 of the voting concludes March 31. The Hobey Hat Trick finalists will be announced on April 3, and the winner will be crowned on April 12 at the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh.

NET GAINS: UND goalies Zane Gothberg (Fr., Thief River Falls, Minn.) and Clarke Saunders (Sr., Brockville, Ontario), who have split time this season, have posted two of the top 10 single-season save percentages in UND history:Saunders has started 25 games, going 13-8-4 with a 2.26 goals against average and a pair of shutouts.

Gothberg has started 16 games, going 8-4-3 with a 2.55 goals against average. His .918 save percentage is the third-lowest by a freshman in UND history.

MARIS’ MOMENT: Senior goalie Tate Maris (Denver, Colo.), a walk-on in 2009-10, made his collegiate debut on March 17 in UND’s 6-0 win over Michigan Tech in Game 3 of their WCHA first-round series.

Maris entered the game to a standing ovation with 4:02 remaining in regulation time and stopped the only shot he faced to combine with Clarke Saunders (27) for UND’s third shutout of the season.

It was just the third shared shutout in UND history. The last one occurred on Nov. 1, 2003, when Jordan Parise and Jake Brandt combined for an 10-0 win over Yale.

The first one happened on Nov. 26, 1954, when Gerald “Spike” Schultz and Tom Yurkovich combined for an 11-0 win over Minnesota Duluth.

NO REST FOR THE WEARY: UND closed out the regular season by playing 12 of its final 14 regular season games against nationally-ranked opponents.

UND, which went 6-4-4 during that stretch, has faced the nation’s fifth-toughest schedule overall, according to the KRACH rankings.

KNIGHT STREAKING: Senior center Corban Knight enjoyed one of the most productive stretches in school history from Nov. 3 to Jan. 19 when he put together UND’s longest point streak in 25 years:Knight amassed an incredible 31 points (9g, 22a) during that stretch.

Knight has a career-high 48 points this season and has reached the scoresheet in 31 games, tied for the most in the nation.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: UND played the first outdoor game in school history on Feb. 9, 2013, when it defeated host Nebraska Omaha 5-2.

The game was played in front of 13,650 fans at TD Ameritrade Park, home of the College World Series.

THE COUNT OF DANNY KRISTO: Senior forward Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) has matched his career high with 26 assists this season, making him UND’s eighth player with 20-plus assists in each of his four seasons and the first since Jeff Panzer from 1997 to 2001.

The other players with 20 or more assists in each of their four seasons are Nick Naumenko (1992-96), Greg Johnson (1989-93), Brad Cox (1976-80), Mark Taylor (1976-80), Rick Zaparniuk (1976-80) and Mike Burggraf (1975-79).

A KNIGHT TO REMEMBER: Senior center Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) has eclipsed the 40-point plateau in each of the last three seasons, becoming UND’s first player with three straight 40-point campaigns since T.J. Oshie and Ryan Duncan each did it from 2005-06 to 2007-08.

Knight is also UND’s first player with a pair of 30-assists seasons since current Minnesota Wild star Zach Parise (2002-04) did it in each of his two seasons in Grand Forks.

GOLDEN GRIMALDI: Freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi (Rossmoor, Calif.) helped lead the U.S. to a gold medal at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Hockey Championship in Ufa, Russia, in January.

Grimaldi scored the game-tying and game-winning goals in the gold medal game, his first goals of the tournament, and was named the player of the game for the U.S. He became UND’s 19th medalist at the tournament and the 12th to win gold:

LUCKY 13: Connor Gaarder’s (So., Edina, Minn.) hat trick on Nov. 3 against No. 12 Boston University was UND’s first since March 11, 2011, when Matt Frattin and Jason Gregoire each scored three times in an 8-0 win over Michigan Tech in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

Gaarder, a walk-on, had entered the night with four goals in 36 career games and has just one goal in 28 games since.

All three of his goals on Nov. 3 either tied the game or put UND in the lead. His third and final goal, which came on the power-play, was the game-winner.

BLUE CHIP BLUELINERS: North Dakota has routinely dressed six NHL draft picks on the blueline this season, the most in program history.

Additionally, Anaheim strength coach Sean Skahan (pronounced ‘skane’) is a former UND assistant strength coach, and former UND football letterwinner Mark Chipman is the chairman of True North Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Winnipeg Jets.

Last season, 17 UND products appeared in the NHL, tying for the program’s most since 1993-94.

Finley, Genoway, Malone and Watkins each made their NHL debuts, while Greene led the Los Angeles Kings to a Stanley Cup championship, defeating Parise, Zajac and the New Jersey Devils in the finals.

RETURN OF THE MAC: Junior forward Mitch MacMillan (Penticton, British Columbia), the older brother of UND sophomore forward Mark MacMillan, became eligible to play for UND following the Christmas break.

MacMillan spent the 2010-11 season and the first half of the 2011-12 season at St. Cloud State before transfering to UND in December 2011.

After sitting out the first half of the 2012-13 season due to NCAA transfer rules, MacMillan has already achieved career highs in points (7) and goals (5) despite playing in only 20 games.

MacMillan had four goals and seven assists in 42 career games at St. Cloud State.

TALL ‘TENDER: At 6-foot-2, junior goalie Clarke Saunders (Brockville, Ontario) is tied with Corey Cadden (1990-92) as the tallest goalie in UND history.

Saunders transfered to UND prior to the 2012-13 season after spending two years at Alabama-Huntsville.

Last season, Saunders recorded a solid .906 save percentage and an NCAA-leading 34 saves per game for a UAH team that went 2-28-1.

Saunders made his UND debut in the season opener on Oct. 19 against Alaska Anchorage at the Brice Alaska Goal Rush in Fairbanks, where he stopped all 21 shots he faced for his first career shutout.

Saunders also became just the third goalie in program history to record a road shutout in his UND debut, joining Aaron Dell (10/23/09 at Alaska Anchorage) and Billy Kriski (11/04/72 at Michigan Tech).

FAREWELL SEASON: The 2012-13 season is UND’s last as a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). Beginning in 2013-14, UND will join the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which will also consist of Denver, Colorado, Miami, Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska Omaha, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan.

Since joining the WCHA in 1959-60, UND leads the league in both regular season (15) and playoff (11) conference championships.

In 2011-12, UND made league history by becoming the first school to win three consecutive Broadmoor Trophies as WCHA Final Five champions.

FEELING A DRAFT: UND’s 2012-13 roster features 14 National Hockey League draft picks, including 2012 1st-rounder Jordan Schmaltz (Verona, Wis.). The freshman defenseman was taken in the first round (25th overall) by the St. Louis Blues.

Additionally, nearly every member of the support staff is also a graduate of UND, including director of hockey operations Pat Swanson (2002), athletic trainer and strength coach Mark Poolman (1992), team physician Dr. Greg Greek (1977) and media relations director Jayson Hajdu (2000).

NICKNAME/LOGO: The University of North Dakota officially retired its longtime “Fighting Sioux” nickname and logo prior to the 2012-13 athletics season.

UND’s varsity athletics teams will operate without an official nickname until 2015, when the University will undertake the process of adopting the third official nickname in school history. Until 2015, the Uuniversity’s varsity athletics teams will be referred to as “the University of North Dakota,” “North Dakota,”or “UND.”

UND adopted the “Fighting Sioux” nickname in 1930 after previously being known as the “Flickertails.”